The present invention relates to a method for inspecting and monitoring a building including an apartment house and a structure such as a bridge as well as facilities installed in the building and the structure such as an elevator and an air conditioner and in particular, to an inspection and monitoring method using a sensor network.
Recently the information technology has made a great progress and has been widely spread. The Internet has been spread in ordinary homes. Furthermore, mobile devices such as mobile telephones are spread and connected to the Internet. Moreover, a network such as wireless LAN is also widely spread in homes and offices.
Moreover, recently, instead of the conventional bar code, RFID (Radio Frequency ID, also called IC tag, ID tag) is widely spread for various purposes.
Furthermore, the sensor technique is improved by reducing the sensor size and power consumption, and adding a generator mechanism, thereby increasing the user-friendliness.
As a technique unifying these, a sensor network can be exemplified (see, for example, Ian. F Akyildiz et al “A Survey on Sensor Networks”, IEEE Communication Magazine, pp. 102-114, August 2002). Various sensors constitute a network so that communication is performed between the sensors or between the sensors and the RFID. A base station which can communicate with them acquires sensing information and sends it to a system control device where various processes are performed. Especially wireless sensor network performing radio communication does not require wiring and can be easily installed or extended. The sensor network technique has been used mainly for military purpose in the United States but now it is also used for civil purpose. However, full-scale application it just to begin.
The technique constituting the sensor network can be used as follows.
Firstly, the Internet is used for reading and acquiring commodity information on the WEB and order/purchase of commodity through correspondence sales. Moreover, the monitoring video of a camera and the like can be received and viewed. A personal computer and peripheral device at home and in an office are connected by the wireless LAN for communication.
The RFID is used for reading the content of the RFID attached to each commodity stored in a warehouse by an RFID reader capable of radio communication, thereby easily performing stock management. Moreover, the RFID is used for traceability of the commodity.
The sensor itself has been widely used conventionally and its application is being increased. For example, the sensor is used for detecting the remaining amount of consumption articles such as printer ink, monitoring the remaining amount of an oil tank, detecting an intruder into a building, and detecting a user for operating an escalator in a stop state.
It should be noted that as the technique for realizing facility inspection/monitoring cost reduction, JP-A-11-322249 discloses a method for reducing the facility operation stop time by monitoring the abrasion and deterioration and JP-A-2002-351927 discloses a method for accurately grasping the sensor mounting position.
Conventionally, various sensors have been used for maintenance inspection, maintenance inspection when an abnormality has occurred, ordinary monitoring or remote monitoring (hereinafter, the maintenance inspection and the maintenance inspection when an abnormality has occurred are referred to simply as inspection while the ordinary monitoring and remote monitoring are referred to simply as monitoring unless otherwise specified) of buildings including apartment houses and structures such as bridges and tunnels as well as facilities installed in the buildings and the structures such as elevators and air conditioners (hereinafter, the buildings, the structures, and facilities are referred to simply as facilities unless otherwise specified).